Sanatan Dharma row: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah urges PM to retract his comment, calls it provocative

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retract his reported "provocative statement" to "give a befitting reply" to Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin for his comments on Sanatana Dharma.

The call, the CM said, was not only "very provocative but also anti-constitutional," he said in a series of messages posted on social media platform X.

"Regardless of the circumstances, if someone has committed a wrongdoing, action must be taken against them as per the law. Instead, prompting people to respond appropriately becomes a call to take the law into their own hands. Even if the Prime Minister does this, it will be a crime," he said.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not just the leader of the BJP, but he also occupies the constitutional post of PM. In such a case, their actions and actions should be in accordance with the dignity and responsibilities the position carried, Siddaramaiah added.

He took potshots saying it seemed the PM was still in his RSS shelter. "He seems to have forgotten that he is the Prime Minister of 140 crore people of this country. It is a worrisome development that many leaders of his own party and organization are calling for violence, provoked by such statements of the Prime Minister," he said.

"Given the past conduct of the PM, his current statements are not surprising. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself had expressed displeasure with Modi's conduct as Gujarat chief minister during Gujarat riots and had called him to follow the Rajdharma. "On this occasion, I would like to remind Modi of late Vajpayee's words of wisdom," the CM said.